Historical Significance: Phillips was an ophthalmic surgeon and adjunct professor of diseases of the eye in the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine. This book was written as a class text. It covers the materials and cosmesis of spectacles, spectacle fitting, prescription of frames, checking and adjustment of glasses. It was written because textbooks on refraction 'remain almost devoid of reference to the subject of fitting spectacles and the 'scant literature is scattered through optician's trade publications' . The second edition is also held in the archive See Catalogue No 53.